On the recordMay 1, 2023
last month, I continued my annual 95-county tour with a swing through East Tennessee. Over the past few years, this area has experienced both economic growth and a population boom. So the people who live there have seen firsthand what can happen when Tennesseans are allowed to build and nurture a community free from the heavy hand of government. But they also know how fragile that stability can be, and they are just baffled by Joe Biden's determination to ruin what they and millions of other Americans have worked so incredibly hard to build. In just over 2 years, Joe Biden and the Democrats have sabotaged our national defense, our border security, and public safety in the name of dangerous woke agenda items that prioritize mandates and intellectual conformity over the safety and security of the American people. Tennesseans are worried about the rise of the new ``axis of evil.'' Joe Biden is allowing Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea to cross one line after another, and that is not going over very well. Neither is the Biden administration's neglect of a security risk that hits much closer to home. So far this year, Border Patrol and other law enforcement officials have reported almost half a million encounters with migrants trying to illegally cross our border. Over the course of this fiscal year--now, the numbers I am going to give you are for this fiscal year. They have recorded 332 encounters with people who are on the Terrorist Watchlist.…
Source
govinfo.gov




